


The Persephonyx Chronicles

by Staadtal



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Age Difference, Awkward Romance, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Lesbian Character, MILFs, Polyamorous Character, Some Humor, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27162776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Staadtal/pseuds/Staadtal
Summary: The complete untold chronicles of the romance between Persephone, the Olympian Goddess of Vegetables, and Nyx, the chthonian Mother of Night. It fills the empty spots of the game's background story, as imagined by the author. The tone of the chapters is mostly fun and the smut is happy and consensual—although not necessarily vanilla. However, some dramatic aspects of the original events presented in the game will eventually appear as the story progresses.
Relationships: Nyx/Persephone (Hades Video Game)
Kudos: 44





	1. A Confession Under the Pomegranate Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some time after her arrival to the Underworld, the relatively young Goddess of Vegetables, Persephone, is approached by the mysterious and imposing Nyx, Mother of Night, a chthonian deity much older and more powerful than her Olympian counterpart. The encounter ends up going into a much different direction than what Persephone expected and marks the beginning of a friendship and, maybe, something more.

In the depths of the Earth, well below the surface, a goddess of life was laboriously taking care of an enormous and strange pomegranate tree. The leaves of the plant were dark blue instead of bright green, and its bark looked as dull and grey as ash. Nevertheless, its branches were brimming with flame red fruits, scores of fiery pomegranates that were the living proof of the talents and powers of the goddess.

The fair headed Persephone swept the sweat from her brow and took a deep breath. Her clothes and most of her exposed skin were covered in dust and leaves, and several sticks were buried in her naturally rebellious hair. It was hard making life bloom from the dead soil of the Underworld, and using the bloody waters of the river Styx didn’t seem to help in that regard. However, despite that, she allowed herself a brief smile.

“Impressive work, my Queen.”

The unexpected display of praise startled Persephone, who gave a little jump. The source of the compliment was Nyx, goddess of the night and protector of the Underworld. It was the first time she had spoken to her in what seemed like months, just after the coronation ceremony. Persephone suspected that Nyx had been watching her most of the time since then, but being inconspicuous was one of the many talents of the dark-haired chthonic goddess. She also believed that Mother Night didn’t like her very much, on account of her presence meddling with the local hierarchy, even if being brought to the land of the dead had not been Persephone’s idea in the first place.

“Uh. Thank you, Nyx,” belatedly answered the confused goddess, doing her best to clean her hands on her dirty clothes. “Can I do anything for you?”

The stoic countenance of her pale interlocutor showed no evident change before she spoke.

“No, my Queen. In fact I came here to offer my help, should your majesty need it.”

“With the garden, you mean? I can manage that alone, thank you.”

“No, my Queen. I certainly couldn’t hope to assist your majesty in such a matter. Your majesty has successfully brought plant life into the lands of the dead, a feat no other god in the House could ever hope to match. Neither could most of the Olympians.”

Persephone felt her face blush before the sudden barrage of flattery of Nyx, but hoped that the dirt covered it well enough.

“Well… Help me with what, then?”

“With anything my Queen needs.” 

Persephone looked intently at Nyx, as if searching for a clue of what she was talking about.

“Has Hades sent you?”

“No, my Queen. Hades might be the King of the underworld, but I am not one of his many servants. I simply want my Queen to feel at home here, and I noticed your majesty has not taken to mingle with any of the other inhabitants of the House,” Nyx explained before looking at the three-headed dog happily snoring in one corner of the garden, “with one single canine exception, that is.”

Persephone smiled politely, still a bit unsure about what was going on. It was difficult to read anything on the face or words of Nyx, but she didn’t want to be rude. When she was first brought to the Underworld as an offering of sorts for Hades, Persephone believed that Mother Night would see her as a rival for the affections of the King. However, judging by the way her husband and Nyx ignored each other most of the time, she was pretty convinced of that initial theory being wrong. So, despite her many misgivings, Persephone decided to be candid about her situation and feelings.

“Look, Nyx... You don’t mind me calling you by your name, do you?” asked the Queen of the Underworld, suddenly realizing how badly she had been breaking protocol during this conversation.

“I do not mind, my Queen.”

“Well, all right. Thanks, Nyx. What was I talking about?” Persephone picked a small branch from her hair and tossed it away. “Ah, yes. Me not mingling with anyone. You see, Nyx, it’s not that I don’t feel welcome here. I mean, everyone is very polite and deferential, my husband is distant but generous, your children seem very nice and all that, but I’m in an awkward position.” She continued explaining herself while picking up her tools and cleaning around a bit. “I’m the Queen, I suppose, yes, but I don’t know anything about this place. The King barely talks to me, I sleep in his bed but I don’t think I have ever seen him take even a nap since his brother brought me here. I’m all sorts of thankful for him not forcing me to do anything, of course. Even on the wedding night he didn’t even touch me, but I feel like a stranger here. I feel more like a ghost than most of the shades here, I bet.”

Nyx nodded slightly.

“I understand your predicament, my Queen. Before proposing any specific form of assistance, let me assure your majesty that I’ve been watching my Queen closely and have only waited until now to offer my help because I didn’t want to be a bother of any sort.”

“Thank you, Ny-wait, watching me? Why?”

“Can I be forward, my Queen?”

“Please.”

“I find it difficult not to.”

“Not to what?”

“Watch you, your majesty.”

“Watch me? Why do you find it difficult not watching me?”

Nyx blinked, once. Not as common an occurrence as one might think.

“I—and I hope my Queen doesn’t find this unnerving—, I happen to find watching you quite stimulating, your majesty.”

Persephone no longer had any hope of the dirt on her face being enough to cover her increasingly evident blushing.

“Stimulating?,” repeated the Queen of the Underworld. “I’m not sure if I understand what you mean. Stimulating how, Nyx?”

“My Queen, upon your arrival I immediately noticed something different about you. I’ve met a few gods and goddesses during my time, but never felt so enthused by any mortal or immortal as I felt when I first laid my eyes on your majesty’s bright golden hair, lithe yet vigorous frame and charmingly beautiful countenance.”

Persephone was too shocked to interrupt the chthonic goddess, that continued explaining herself to her dumbfound Queen.

“In all the centuries I’ve spent in this world, far from the sun-bathed lands above, never had I seen something shine so brightly as my Queen, and I have never been closer to trembling with excitement as when your majesty’s gaze found mine and I was promptly captivated by the emerald treasure of your majesty’s eyes. If anything close to a heart beats in my–”

“Wait. Wait, wait, wait,” abruptly barged in Persephone. “Are you pulling my leg, Nyx?”

“Uhm. No. Not currently, my Queen, but if that’s what you require of me, I will gladly pull any of your majesty’s extremities.”

“I mean, you are having a laugh, right?,” Persephone continued. “This is some kind of joke.”

“I’m not well versed in those so-called jokes, but I can assure your majesty that I’m being completely serious and honest.”

The Queen of the Underworld took a good look at the Goddess of the Night. Nyx was noticeably taller, with a much more voluptuous figure, evident even through the fabric of her elegant regal dress and the abundant jewelry adorning her body. Her face was inscrutable and somewhat stern, but at the same time intense and captivating. Her skin was pale as the moon and perfectly smooth. Her eyes were like bright golden rings and her hair, her majestic mane of raven-dark hair, flowed in the air and shone with the light of a thousand stars. While not as stunningly sensual as the much less modest Aphrodite, Nyx was, from the point of view of Persephone, one of the most beautiful beings she had ever been in the company of.

“No way!” she said, laughing. “Nyx, please, don’t tease me this way.”

“My Queen, I’m in no way teasing. I’m struggling to find the appropriate way to express myself, but I wholeheartedly mean each and every word I just said. I find myself completely enthralled by your majesty.”

Until that instant Persephone believed that her face could not be even an iota more flush than it already was. She was wrong. Her ears turned so red that one of the eyebrows of Nyx slightly twitched with a hint of preoccupation.

“Is my Queen alright?,” asked the Goddess of the Night.

“Aharfgbl,” mumbled her Queen, waving wildly her hands up in the air, as if trying to physically collect her own thoughts, swirling wildly around her head.

“Your majesty?,” insisted Nyx, a faint sign of worry barely noticeable in her voice.

“Ok, all right. What the Styx!,” Persephone exclaimed, exasperated by her own confusion. “Nyx, are you trying to say that you like me?”

“Yes, my Queen. Very much so.”

Persephone took a deep breath.

“All right. Understood. You like me.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

“And you want to help me.”

“It is my utmost desire, your majesty.”

“Great. It’s true that I’ve been feeling a bit lonely here, and I would welcome some company and conversation. Even somewhat confusing conversation. Cerberus provides me with some comfort, but even with three heads, he has very little to say.” The infernal hound stirred in his sleep on the other corner of the garden, sniffing the air for some oniric treat with one of his snouts. “But I barely know you Nyx, so I cannot promise that I can return these… These things you say you feel about me.”

“I perfectly understand that, my Queen. I only wish to please your majesty in the best way I can and to the extent that my Queen considers appropriate.”

“We’ll have to do something about your way of talking to me, Nyx. I’m not really used to being called queen or majesty.”

“But that’s what you are, my Queen.”

“I’m not even wearing the stupid crown right now, Nyx. Just call me Persephone.”

“That I fear I can’t do, my Queen. Crowned or not, I only want to serve your majesty and show proper deference.”

“All right, Nyx,” asked Persephone, pinching her nose bridge, slightly exasperated by the extreme formality of her newly revealed admirer and prospective friend. “Let’s work out a compromise. Call me queen if you must, but drop the majesty bit. Could you do that for me, please?”

A long second elapsed.

“Yes. For you I could do that, my Queen.”

Persephone smiled, visibly satisfied.

“Thank you, Nyx.” The Goddess of Vegetables picked up one of the pomegranates from the tree and opened it. “Why won’t you try one of these and then show me around the House?”

Nyx delicately picked up a single sweet seed from the open fruit and with an elegant gesture pushed it between her violet lips and into her mouth. With the faintest, most subtle facial movement, the goddess chewed the seed and tasted its juicy meat. A flash of satisfaction that crossed the usually impassive eyes of the chthonic goddess.

“Delicious,” she said. “Like ambrosia.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Persephone handed the whole fruit to her new friend. The stars in the constellation of Nyx’s hair twinkled with emotion when she briefly felt the touch of her queen’s hand, but otherwise she remained completely stoic. “Finish it, take your time. Then, please, give me a proper tour of the House.”

The two spent a long time together under that tree. Nyx didn’t need to eat and seldom did it for pleasure, so she savoured each and every seed and bite of the fruit. Persephone kept quiet, trying to process what the dark-haired beauty just had so nonchalantly confessed to her. It was far too soon for her to know whether she reciprocated the ancient goddess’s feelings, but she had never shown particular preference for any gender and it was difficult not to be at least somewhat attracted to her statuesque acquaintance, despite her strict and cold demeanor. This strange first date was the first of many and, as time passed, the relationship between the goddesses grew and bloomed in the depths of the Underworld, like the pomegranate tree in the garden of Persephone.


	2. The Moaning Fields

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After some time enjoying the company of Nyx, the feelings of Persephone towards Mother Night had changed into something more than simple fondness and admiration. However, none of the deities acted upon their repressed emotions until they shared a fateful trip to Nyx's secret retreat in the Moaning Fields.

For Persephone, earning the assistance of Nyx during her stay in the Underworld had changed her life considerably. In a relatively short time, for immortals at least, the infatuated nocturnal Chthonian deity had helped the comparatively young Olympian goddess feel much more at home in the section of Tartarus called simply the House. Even the other inhabitants of the unusual abode had started accepting her as their Queen more readily. Cerberus, of course, had been the first friend she had acquired in her new residence, but Nyx had very slowly and methodically gained a very important place in her divine heart.

Her new friend never stopped showering her with kind words and helpful assistance, and had become both a great guide of the Underworld and an esteemed companion and confidant. This, however, didn’t necessarily mean that Persephone was ready to reciprocate Nyx’s feelings. Mother Night didn’t pressure her at all, and always kept her distance and treated her with extreme deference and polite decorum, but Persephone felt conflicted about the whole situation regardless. She had not a lack of admiration for Nyx’s elegant unearthly beauty, overabundant wisdom and powerful presence. Persephone liked her divine suitress, in fact very much so, but not enough to let their relationship evolve into something beyond friendship. At least not yet.

“Nyx, tell me. What do you like to do here?,” asked the Goddess of Vegetables to her friend, who was effortlessly floating in the air near her.

“Spending time with my Queen, of course,” unashamedly declared Nyx.

“I mean, what do you like to do for yourself,” Persephone explained. “What do you do when you want to relax.”

“I spend time with my Queen, if she is available and wants my company.”

“Thanks, Nyx. Then, what did you do before I came here? There must be something you enjoy.”

“Oh. Of course, my Queen. Now I understand. Are you asking if I had any activity, aside from my obligations, in which I happened to indulge occasionally as a form of leisure?”

“Yes, Nyx. A hobby, something you liked to do.”

“Well, since Hades came to the Underworld and took care of the administrative tasks of the afterlife, I’ve had less work to do,” the Goddess of the Night told her Queen. “Mostly I’ve kept myself occupied by improving the House and other sections of the Underworld. I’ve also spent some time reading parchments, mostly with prophecies woven by my daughters, the Fates.”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” said Persephone, finally finding some of her curiosity being sated. “Anything else?”

“Hm. Yes, I suppose. Surely my Queen remembers Daedalus?”

“I think so. He’s the old man—well, the old shade, I mean—that takes care of refurbishing and building things around here, isn’t he? He makes weird traps and contraptions and those things?”

“Precisely. When he first came to work under your father, he offered me his services. I think it was meant both as a way of expressing his gratitude and, possibly, some admiration towards me.”

“I could understand that, yes,” whispered Persephone as she looked intently at the beautiful countenance of her friend.

“So, after some deliberation, I decided to accept his offer of building something akin to the _thermae_ the mortals enjoy on the surface, and the Olympians in their abode, I suppose. I chose a secluded location and had him create a pool where I could wash my flesh and rest my mind.”

“Oh, an open-air bath?”

“Something like that, my Queen.”

“And are you the only one that uses it?,” inquired Persephone, genuinely interested.

“As far as I know, yes. But it would be my privilege sharing it, or leaving for my Queen to enjoy herself.”

“No, I want you to show me this place, as soon as possible, and take a looooong relaxing bath with me.”

The faintest movement of Nyx’s eyebrows and a not so subtle twinkling of some of the stars adorning her dark hair were the only signs of the profound excitement she felt about her beloved Queen’s proposal.

“I think I should confess to my Queen that I have always felt appropriate, even preferable, to enjoy my immersion in the pool without any garment or apparel.”

“What? Oh…” Persephone imagined how much more breathtaking the voluptuous body of her friend would be in her birthday suit and immediately started to blush, her face soon turning red enough to pass for a decent imitation of her pomegranate’s crimson colour. “Well, I mean. Makes sense. I won’t mind… If you wouldn’t mind. Would you mind? You know, being nude with me?”

“Truth to be told, my Queen, I’d rather enjoy that. Beholding the perfection of your well-formed, shapely body, free from the prison of your otherwise befitting clothing, has been a rather recurrent fantasy of mine since I first laid eyes on you.”

“Nyx!,” protested Persephone, already more flustered than she would like to admit. “Please, try not to be so…”

“Eager? I can’t, my Queen. There is nothing that I want more than getting to know my Queen better, in body, mind and soul.”

“I meant, try not to be so straight-forward with those remarks.” The Queen of the Underworld wondered how her face could feel so hot but her hair won’t catch fire.

“Then you would rather have us bathe with clothes?”

“Ye-No. That’s not it.”

“Or would my Queen prefer to enjoy the pool by herself after all?”

“No!” Persephone took a deep breath. “Look, Nyx, why don’t you take me to this place and we decide what to do when we arrive?”

“If that’s what my Queen wants, of course.”

“Yes, I would like that.”

The two deities spent some time planning this outing and went separate ways to make preparations. Persephone chose to wear a simple dress and carry a basket with change of clothing and some of her husband’s many identical red capes to use as towels. Meanwhile, Nyx had recruited the help of Charon to take both of them to the pool, but had apparently decided not to change from her usual dress and kept all her jewelry and accessories with her.

“I thought you could take us both there yourself, Nyx,” commented Persephone, getting on the small raft and greeting their boatman with a nod of her fair-haired head.

“I could, my Queen, but when I transport others using my instantaneous translocation capabilities, they often feel sick, and I wouldn’t dare inconveniencing my Queen thus. Besides, Charon doesn’t mind, does he?,” she asked the boatman.

“Hrrrmmmm grrgl,” he answered, extending one hand with a small piece of parchment towards Persephone.

“Thanks, Charon. Hm. What’s this?,” asked the goddess, taking the parchment and showing it to her friend.

“His calling card, my Queen. Whenever you need Charon’s services, just go to a shore of any Underworld river, focus on the card and he will come to you.”

“Aaah-Hrrrl,” said the boatman, nodding.

“Like myself, Charon works for the Underworld but not specifically for Hades,” Nyx explained. “He will also do what he can to help his Queen.”

“Grml haaah hrm.”

“He also likes your choice of attire very much, my Queen,” translated Mother Night.

“Uh. Thanks. I like your hat,” answered Persephone, trying to avoid looking too intently at the ghoulish face of Charon.

After their brief chat, the group left the shore and made their way up the river Styx and out of Tartarus. Their destination was located past Asphodel but before reaching Elysium. From afar it was an unassuming piece of land floating between the three rivers of the Underworld and mostly covered by a silvery white mist. Charon brought the raft to a hidden jetty next to a wide but extremely shallow channel that flowed inland from the Styx and left his passengers on the shore.

“Ah hrr hrrrm groool,” he said.

“We will call you when we are done, worry not,” answered Nyx.

“Thanks again, Charon,” added Persephone.

The boatman tipped his wide-brimmed hat to her Queen and departed, leaving the two goddesses alone on the fog-covered plains.

“The pool itself is some distance away, my Queen. Follow me, please,” requested the chthonic deity.

Persephone obliged and walked alongside Nyx, who, as always, floated gracefully above the ground. There wasn’t much to see on the plains at first. The place was very warm due to the closeness of the Phlegethon river, but the low light and the humid fog balanced the temperature. The mist obscured most details of the scenery, but here and there some faint silhouettes could be seen in the distance.

“Are those shades?,” asked the youngest of the two goddesses, somewhat worried.

“Not exactly, my Queen. They were, at some point, now they are just remnants. This place was once known as the Moaning Fields, a place for souls with unrequited love. When Hades reorganized the Underworld, he saw no reason to treat them differently from other shades, so he relocated most of them as he saw fit. A few chose to remain here and their memories and personalities were slowly consumed by the mist of the Lethe that now fills this place.”

“That’s kind of sad. Shouldn’t we worry about the mist, Nyx?”

“Fortunately not, my Queen. Immortals like us are much more resilient to the waters of the river of forgetfulness. We’d need to completely submerge ourselves on the undiluted river waters for some time for it to work. In fact, I find its mist provides a somewhat relaxing sensation.”

“It’s not unpleasant, that’s true,” concurred Persephone, passing her hands through the silvery fog.

“It feels even better on exposed skin,” Nyx explained, with an infinitesimally small hint of eagerness in her otherwise perfectly monotonous voice. “Well, here we are, my Queen.”

The chthonic goddess pointed towards a small depression on the flat plains, where someone had built a simple yet elegant triangle-shaped pool with a mix of blocks of white, grey and red stone. A set of columns on each side, one of each colour, separated the central pool from channels that carried water from the three Underworld rivers: grey for Styx, white for Lethe and red for Phlegethon. From each corner, a flight of stairs descended into the red waters of the open-air bath. The waters were crimson red, which was to be expected, and covered by a layer of white mist. Just above its surface, ethereal disembodied hands and heads appeared and disappeared.

“Those are remnants, too?,” asked Persephone, not very thrilled by the idea of sharing a bath with random pieces of what once were living souls.

“Yes, my Queen. One of Daedalus’s ideas. At first I wasn’t very sure about their usefulness, to be completely sincere,” Nyx confessed. “However, they serve an important purpose. You see, since remnants are devoid of will but still yearn for purpose, they respond to the emotions and needs of those that enter the waters.”

“I’m still not getting it, Nyx. Feels icky.”

“I understand your trepidation, my Queen, but they cannot do any harm to you, or I wouldn’t even dream of bringing you here. Do you want me to show you how to best enjoy their presence?”

“Please,” answered Persephone, still creeped out by the ghostly floating body parts.

Nyx nodded.

“As you wish.”

With an elegant gesture, the chthonic goddess made all her clothing and jewelry disappear into thin air, as if all the fabric, gold and jewels that always decorated her statuesque body had never been there. It was the first time Persephone had seen her friend in all her glory and, judging by her slack-jawed breathlessness, the younger goddess was not exactly prepared for the sudden undressing and shameless exhibitionism.

“Oh my,” she thought, taking in every detail of her friend’s glorious godly physique.

Nyx’s pale skin took on a beautiful pink shine due to the ambient light reflected on the red waters of the pool. The only hairy areas on her body were her dark starry mane and an equally lustrous and shiny pubic bush. Her silhouette was even curvier than when framed by her usual well-fitting attire. While she was in no way overweight, or even chubby, her body was full of gentle roundness. Her shapely and surprisingly rotund thighs, for her hip width at least, gave way to a plump posterior. Her waist was noticeably narrower and helped accentuate her hourglass figure. Her belly wasn’t completely flat and her ribs were well covered. Her bountiful bosom, free from the fabric of her dress, submitted to the force of gravity and dropped a few inches, as her relatively small purple nipples, of a slightly less intense hue and noticeably less shiny than the goddess’s luscious lips, were also revealed.

“Oh my godliness,” Persephone said once she recovered from the initial shock. “Nyx, you are gorgeous.”

Mother Night blinked slowly and sighed almost imperceptibly.

“Thank you, my Queen. I’m overcome with joy knowing that you approve of my appearance. I fear I never get any exercise and I’m conscious of being in much worse shape than my Queen.”

“Nyx,” said Persephone, slightly angry but very carefully and slowly choosing and pronouncing each word, “you are breathtakingly beautiful, inside and out. Please, abstain from disparaging yourself any further.”

“I-Yes, my Queen.” 

“Good.”

“I’m sorry, my Queen.”

“Don’t apologize. You are perfect,” affirmed her friend, without a smidge of doubt on her voice.

“Oh,” Nyx said. Several star clusters suddenly rearranged on the dark void of her mane. It was probably the closest to blushing she had been on her impossibly long life. She cleared her throat. “Shall I show my Queen how I use the pool?”

“Please,” asked Persephone, now noticing once more that there was a world outside the wonderful view that was her friend’s exposed body.

For the first time since they met, Nyx floated down to the ground and used her legs to walk down the stairs and into the pool water. Once inside, the waters reached just above the deity’s hips. She effortlessly passed through any remnants floating on her way to the centre of the bath, as if they didn’t even exist. Some disappeared from the surface of the pool, like bubbles. Others turned completely ethereal. None seemed to be any kind of obstacle or threat to the goddess. Hiding below the red waters, on the centre of the pool, there were some stone benches, and Nyx sat on one of them. Once she settled on the seat, the reddish water covered most of her body from her shoulders down, although a good portion of her buoyant breasts refused to stay submerged.

“As you can see, my Queen, the remnants can easily be ignored. You won’t even feel their touch unless you want to,” she explained, slightly raising her voice for her friend still outside the pool.

“And if you want?,” asked Persephone, internally conflicted. The spectral shells still grossed her out, but she was already missing the blissful sight of Nyx’s body.

“Just focus your will on the task you want them to perform, my Queen, and they will readily obey. Like this, for instance.”

Nyx closed her golden eyes and took a deep breath. Momentarily, four remnants erupted from the water around her. Unlike the ones floating around aimlessly, these ghostly hands seemed to have some substantial presence. This was immediately confirmed when they started massaging Mother Night's shoulders and neck.

“As you can see, my Queen, they are far from harmful. I swear to you, on my eternal life, that you will be safe.”

“Phew. Ok, ok,” Persephone mumbled to herself. “Give me a moment, I will join you.”

Persephone, while not powerless, was much less apt at magic tricks than her older friend and had to physically disrobe. Fortunately, thanks to her choice of clothing, it didn’t take her much time at all. She was feeling a little trepidation still, although she was unsure if it was due to the creepy remnants of her increasing thirst for her friend. She knew she liked Nyx. She didn’t expect to also want her so much. Thanks to her overbearing mother, she never had much opportunity to explore her own sexual urges, much less act upon them with someone. But right then the Goddess of Vegetables was finding herself picturing in her mind what she would like to do with—or to—her friend. And even trying to think about her plants to calm herself proved to be unsuccessful, as innocent images of melons, peaches and other succulent fruits soon turned into more indecent scenes.

“Give me a moment!”

“Of course, my Queen, take your time,” answered her friend, whose feet were being massaged by other submerged ghostly hands.

Persephone ran around the pool and splashed some of Lethe’s water on her face. While it didn’t completely stop her imagination from careening down lust mountain, it helped calm her down a little. She took some deep breaths, returned to the stairs and finally undressed herself.

While Nyx’s reaction wasn’t as evident as Persephone’s, for the chthonic deity the act of witnessing the nude body of her much beloved friend was no less awe-inspiring. Persephone’s physique was quite distinct from hers, from her significantly lower height and slimmer figure to the small creases and wrinkles created by years of hard physical work under the sun and wind and her very expressive nature. She had a bronzed tan skin that was perfectly complemented by her rebellious spiky golden hair and the soft-looking fuzz on most of her body. Her well-toned muscles were perfectly evident on her arms, legs, back and abdomen. Her small breasts were defiantly perky and crowned by big thick bronze-coloured nipples, evidently erect. Her ass was compact and tight, pleasantly shaped and firm. Paradoxically, she looked much younger than the stern chthonic goddess, while at the same time more world-weary.

“Well, this is it,” whispered Persephone to herself. “She would make Aphrodite jealous—not that it's particularly difficult, mind you—and you look like a dirty farmhand. She is going to feel robbed and lose all interest in your sorry flat ass, you silly goddess, you.”

While the young goddess was busy demeaning herself, several galaxies were exploding in Nyx’s hair. Were she a mortal, Mother Night would be feeling butterflies in her stomach and funny things elsewhere. She would blush and tremble in anticipation. She would probably salivate. Alas, the chthonic deity had her own way of experiencing emotions, but experiencing them she was, nevertheless. Intensely.

Persephone thought on whether or not to pick one of the capes she had brought to cover herself in the pool but decided against it in a bout of resignation. When she cautiously walked down the stairs and entered the warm waters, she felt like a gladiator going into the ring. She was, however, somewhat hoping for the proverbial tiger waiting for her in the centre of the bath to eat her. Passing through the remnants that filled the pool sent shivers down her spine, despite it not really feeling that different from just crossing normal water

“The temperature is nice,” said Persephone, sitting on a submerged bench just opposite Nyx, who was still being serviced by the spectral hands, now busy massaging her arms. The water almost reached the shorter goddess mouth.

“I’m glad my Queen enjoys it, I feared it might be a bit too hot for her taste.”

“Hahaha. No, I’m hot. It’s hot, I mean. Hot but nice. Nice hot.” Persephone submerged her mouth and started making bubbles to avoid saying more stupid things. Nyx very slightly raised an eyebrow in a gesture of extreme quizzical confusion. “Thanks for bringing me here, Nyx,” she added, resurfacing.

“My pleasure.”

Pleasure was, indeed, something weighing heavily in the minds of the two goddesses. In which were, undoubtedly, two very different ways of thinking about it, both of them were walking on mental tight ropes, trying to keep their mutual physical attraction contained for fear of refusal but at the same time wishing the other party would make a first move. Wise and powerful as they were, none of them were particularly well prepared for this situation. In a complete and awkward silence that lasted minutes, they furtively glanced at each other’s bodies. Persephone at Nyx’s generous bust, full lips, starry raven hair, bewitching golden eyes and the vertiginous curves of her submerged body. Nyx at Persephone’s gem-like emerald eyes, slender neck, alluringly firm breasts and well-defined muscles. It was like a silent duel between extremely horny but idiotically demure deities. Yet, they didn’t make any moves. Nevertheless, their turbulent feelings and thoughts didn’t go completely unnoticed.

The spectral hands that had been busy massaging different parts of Nyx’s anatomy gradually stopped following her previous commands and floated aimlessly on the water. A few more assorted ghostly shapes appeared around the two goddesses, too lost in their inner conflicts to notice. Their repressed sexual tension, usually unable to materialize even for gods—in the case of some, like Zeus, because it was never repressed—was slowly coalescing and unwittingly puppeteering the resident apparitions.

Sliding from behind Nyx, a pair of hand-shaped remnants very lightly caressed the goddess’s shoulders and slowly moved towards her floating mammaries, which they started massaging, softly at first, but with rapidly increasing intensity.

“Oh,” she said, showing no particular emotion. “Strange.”

As she vocalized her unconcerned observation, a semi-substantial eyeless head moved behind Persephone and started kissing her exposed neck.

“Oh!,” exclaimed the younger goddess, startled by the sudden, albeit pleasant, sensation. She tried to look at the head, but it followed her movement, sliding effortlessly on the surface of the water to keep the same position relative to her neck. Another kiss, surprisingly well delivered, almost made her moan. “Nyx, what’s happening?”

“My Queen,” she answered, as half a dozen hands more floated around her, above and below the water, and started to touch her neck, face, back and legs, “I fear that my thoughts might have...” She paused to silently react to one of the hands sliding up her inner thigh. “They might have drifted towards matters of carnal nature, guided by…” The breast-massaging hands pinched her nipples, causing another brief pause. “Guided by my intense admiration of your Majesty’s regal physique. This might have informed the actions of the one currently…” She gasped as one of the hands attending her bosom morphed into a head and started sucking one of her breasts. “Currently looking to kiss you.”

Persephone, although still slightly worried about the unseen lips kissing her neck and the other remnants slowly approaching her, was having some difficulty not enjoying the scene, as the gang of spectral hands were basically reenacting on her companion’s bodacious body some of the many thoughts she had been having swirling around in her head during their shared time inside the pool. She immediately understood the implications.

“No. No, no, no, no! Nyx, I’m sorry, then all those around you are because of me!,” she confessed, standing up and covering her body with her arms, leaving the ghostly head behind. “What do I do?”

“A-are these remnants truly acting upon your will, m-my Queen?,” Nyx asked, barely changing her expression but obviously feeling the touch of the spectral apparitions.

“Yes! I’m sorry Nyx!”

“Please, my Queen,” the chthonic goddess continued, as the ever-increasing swarm of remnants under the water started to lift her from the seat and continued caressing, groping, licking and kissing more and more of her body, “don’t be. If this is… If this is truly what you want for me, I’ll happily surrender myself to your every wish.”

“Nyx, I like you! I like you very much!”

“I’m overcome with bliss, my Queen,” she said, showing no effort to resist the many remnants enveloping her. “I love you.”

Those three last words sent a shiver down Persephone’s spine and made her skip a beat. She still wanted to stop the remnants, if not only to save her friend, because she’d loved to take their place. However, she was too enthralled by the spectacle to properly focus. She continued watching Nyx, whose pale body partially submerged in the wine-like water, was being handled and groped by a red army of slithering partial phantoms. It was truly hypnotic, a frenetic dance of living translucent blood paint around the sensual white canvas that was Mother Night. And, as the Olympian got more and more excited by the erotic show, more and more ghostly actors joined the troupe currently acting out her fantasies. 

As the remnants summoned by her thoughts continued making love to her companion, two full-bodied apparitions emerged from the pool, one in front of Persephone, another behind her. Both translucent and patchwork-like, built from the fusion of different remnants. Both with a feminine silhouette very much like Nyx’s. They embraced the Olympian goddess. The one in front kissed her in the lips, the one behind her kissed her in the neck. She, like the chthonian goddess, decided to surrender and let the remnants do unto her as her companion would have liked to do herself.

After what had seemed like a brief eternity in the pool, both goddesses had finally accepted their attraction towards each other, if only through the action of their ghostly proxies. But the fun part had just started.

Persephone’s emotions, more confused and tumultuous, fueled the swarm of miscellaneous remnants, that passionately but disorderly tried their best to bodily explore and entertain the chthonic deity. Dozens of hands caressed, massaged, felt and groped every inch of the nocturnal goddess. Faceless heads materialized here and there to deliver graceful kisses or, sometimes, fierce bites. Some manifestations were too ephemeral and weak, others excessively solid and strong but lacked control. It was an orgiastic mess, a clumsy sexual free-for-all. Had the intent behind the spectral assault not been the substantiation of the pure unbridled desires of her beloved Queen, Mother Night would have been justified thinking of herself as the victim of a ravaging mob, anxious to feel her way around, and sometimes partially inside, her godly body. However, given that Persephone’s attraction towards her was driving each and every display of zealous affection, even the most unnecessarily forceful, every sensation turned into unmitigated euphoria for Nyx.

Meanwhile, Nyx love and lust for her Queen, much more refined and focused, had taken the form of two twin spectral patchwork amalgamations. Persephone, despite her initial dislike for the remnants, immediately recognized in them the devotion and idolatry her friend had so readily expressed in words but that, until then, abstained to give physical form. So, she decided to let herself be loved. And well loved she was. The spectral projections of her partner’s emotions were as careful and gentle as any lover could ever hope. Their kisses were long and tender, even if sometimes deep, and always felt soft on her skin, like the petals of a rose. Their touch was warm and pleasant, whether they delivered the light touch of a feather or the placid pressure of a tightly-closed ribbon of the purest silk. They seemed to know, or at least quickly learn, where and how to act to exact the maximum amount of pleasure. So comforting and enjoyable was their embrace, that she didn’t even think of resisting when they directed their efforts to the most intimate sections of her anatomy. Her trust in them was handsomely rewarded, sending the goddess to depths of carnal pleasure she hadn’t even thought possible.

The silence reigning over the pool and surrounding plains during this event was only broken by the chorus of moans and screams of pleasure chanted by the two deities, although most of the blissful vocalizations were the work of Persephone, as the remnants, no matter how enthusiastic, were completely silent. When their rampant emotions finally subsided and the spectral apparitions gradually disappeared, the goddesses were left in very different situations. Despite Nyx’s perennially dignified disposition, the chaotic indirect display of affection from Persephone had managed to leave the chthonic deity in a somewhat unkempt state, floating spread-legged on the pool with her beautiful floating mane looking messy, probably for the first time ever since Mother Night was brought into the Underworld. Her white skin was covered in pink and red marks, hickeys and bruises left behind by her too enthusiastic assailants. She laid silently, gazing at the dark void above her with a faint sheen of contentment in her golden eyes. 

The Olympian, who had been treated with much more tact and care, had her hair just as messy as when she had entered the bath, and was unable to stop smiling, despite feeling some guilt for the way her feelings had gotten out of control. As ecstatic and liberating as their trip was resulting for the two goddesses, the physically exhausted deities felt that something was still left unresolved amongst them. Persephone offered a hand to her friend and technicalities involving direct action aside, now lover. Nyx took it and gracefully stood up, magically fixing her hair and purging her body from any small injuries in the process.

“I’m sorry, Nyx, I didn’t-.”

The older goddess, in an act of unprecedented breach of etiquette, interrupted her beloved Queen with a kiss. Persephone returned it, embracing Mother Night. They kept this osculatory exchange going for a long time, expressing with their lips and tongues everything that needed to be said, without uttering a word. When their passions started flaring again and they barely managed to stop a second surge or remnant activity around them, they decided to leave the pool. They dried each other, using the spare capes of the Underworld King that Persephone had borrowed, then summoned or put back their clothing and finally contacted Charon using his parchment calling card. Aside from politely thanking the boatman for his help, they exchanged no words during the rest of the trip. They didn’t stop holding hands and looking intently into each other’s eyes, however. And, as impossible as it would seem, something akin to the minutest sign of a smile was observed in Nyx’s stoic face.

Later, there were other trips to the pool in the Moaning Fields, of course. In fact the goddesses turned these outings into a custom, returning to the bath many times when they felt the need of releasing their passions, sometimes directly, sometimes through the actions of the resident phantasmal proxies, many times doing both. And the lovers became very good at directing the remnants, as their feelings continued blossoming and becoming more clear.


	3. Royal Jelly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her relationship with Nyx evolved into a fiery romance, Persephone started to feel more welcomed in the Underworld. Even her usually distant husband had begun to try and spend more time with her. And Hades was not SO bad, once she got to know him. The Olympian once more opens her heart—and other parts of her body—to Mother Night, searching for advice, assitance and a healthy amount of satisfaction.

Time passed, although it was difficult to properly measure how much without the helpful cycle of day and night. For Persephone and Nyx each opportunity they had to indulge in one another’s company seemed always too brief, while any event that prevented one from seeing the other felt like an eternity. They had decided to keep their relationship a secret from the other inhabitants of the House, with the sole exception of Charon, who was often the facilitator of their getaways. That wasn’t much of a problem, since the Goddess of the Night excelled at keeping things from prying eyes just as much as she had perfected the ability of knowing everything that happened in the Underworld. This sometimes made the couple do things that otherwise would seem too bold, even reckless.

“Oh, Nyx! Oh! Oh my goddess!,” screamed the Queen of the Underworld, holding her lover’s raven-haired head between her legs. “Oh-oh-oh! Please, don’t stop!”

“Ahmuvishmakiin,” managed to answer Mother Night, despite having her mouth otherwise occupied.

“Aaaah! D-don’t reply, ju-just don’t stop!”

“Yismkiin,” said Nyx, with something that could have been impish rebelliousness or extreme adherence to proper etiquette. This being Nyx, probably the latter.

The two deities were capping off a short but supremely satisfactory sexual session with which was probably the couple’s favourite  _ pièce de résistance _ for any such encounter: Nyx’s perfected and unparalleled cunnilingus. This time, they were having their rendezvous in a place they had, until then, purposefully avoided: the royal bedchambers. They had originally met there to discuss some redecorating proposed by the Queen. Theoretically, at least. Once they were left alone, Persephone got a bit playful and things escalated quickly. Needless to say, the nocturnal chthonian deity was, at first, against such a potentially disastrous proposal. However, old and wise as she was, her love and devotion for her Queen soon melted away any attempt at resisting her majesty’s avid advances.

Soon after Nyx’s surrender, their clothes had proverbially or literally vanished and the couple were happily entwined making love on the king-sized bed. Which, considering it was made for the gigantic Underworld King, was tremendously huge. The idea of finally giving some proper use to the gargantuan piece of furniture, and the risks associated with such an audacious action, had turned on some switch on the young goddess’s mind, who threw herself on her older and physically bigger companion like a gazelle in heat trying to mount a snow cougar. The fierce and ferocious fondling and finger fucking that filled the first minutes of the encounter, while not award-winning in its execution, was truly godly in intensity. Then, things mellowed out a bit, and there was some tender tribadism to be had between the deities. 

After an appropriate level of satisfaction was reached by both parties, Nyx decided to chastise her Queen’s recklessness with some very well-deserved spanking. Feeling both somewhat guilty and extremely horny after beating some sense into her beloved’s firm buttocks, the chthonic goddess decided to give some lip service to her lover as a form of positive reinforcement. Which brings us back to the start of this story, with some sexytimes still in progress.

“Oooooh! Oh!”

Persephone was once again approaching climax in the supernaturally capable hands, or mouth in this instance, of her divine partner.

“Aaaah… Aaaah! Ah-hm-aaah!”

Nyx, who initially had only academical knowledge of this kind of oral activities—not being somebody who usually felt physically attracted to others, but who always had some interest in the pleasures of flesh–, had very quickly mastered the discipline and grown to immensely enjoy the activity and the many flavours and sensations that accompanied it.

“N-Nyx! Yeees! Nyyyyyyyx! Oh! Nyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyx!”

The glorious cries of orgasmic bliss of the Olympian goddess had become the favourite sounds of the nocturnal chthonic deity and she had found ways of manipulating their pitch, tone and volume without diminishing her beloved’s level of gratification. Persephone had been the only instrument she had ever bothered learning to play in her long immortal life, and she played her beautifully.

“AH! OOOH!! AAAOOOAAAH!!! NY-yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssss!”

Even considering the thick walls of stone and the weight and density of the doors that sealed the bedchambers of the Underworld’s royal couple, the screams of the Queen when she reached her climax would have been very likely heard by the King, Hynos and all the shades currently waiting for their audience outside. Thankfully for the not so discreet lovers, Nyx’s magic prevented their peculiar chorus from escaping their close proximity, although the intensity was such that, even with divine wards in place, one of Cerberus’s heads was able to pick up something.

Nyx licked her lips, enjoying the last traces of her beloved’s secretions, and floated over her, letting some parts of her body strategically brush against her lover’s sensitive areas. Persephone was lying over the sheets that provided some isolation from the cold surface of the stony bed, doing her best to recover from the breathtaking orgasm. They longingly looked at each other’s eyes and then kissed, as they always liked to do after every round of carnal concourse.

“I can’t believe it,” said Persephone, after resting for a few minutes. “You are still getting better at it, Nyx! What’s your secret?”

“Well, my Queen,” answered the chthonian deity, playfully caressing her lover’s fair hair, floating a few inches above her, “long, long ago, my daughters, the Fates, gifted me several scrolls about the art of sapphic lovemaking. I didn’t understand why at the time, although I read and committed them to memory anyway. That, practice and my undying devotion to my Queen, I suppose.”

“I will have to thank them. Still, Nyx, you won’t even fake humility!” Persephone laughed and then tenderly touched one of the other goddess’s cheeks with her hand. “But I like that about, you.” She kissed her lover on the lips. “I like everything about you.”

Nyx returned the kiss and let her body float down until she was lying next to her Queen on the huge bed.

“I’m glad you convinced me to do this, my Queen, despite the risks involved, but I’d rather enjoy our next encounters further away from your husband’s presence, both for him and for us.”

“I understand, sorry,” apologised the Olympian before holding hands with her lover. “And, well, since you brought my husband up, Nyx…”

“Yes, my Queen?”

“Lately he’s been spending more time with me and…” Persephone started visibly fidgeting.

“I’ve noticed, my Queen.”

“Yes, of course you noticed.” Her Queen sighed. “The thing is… I’m sort of starting to feel something for him…” She looked worriedly at the inscrutable but beautiful face of her lover. “I think?”

Nyx’s reply was nonexistent. Null. Zero. Complete silence.

“He is not a gentle man, nor particularly funny to be around, but, I don’t know. I think he’s trying to get closer to me and show me he cares. And, although at first I was afraid of him, that’s no longer the case.”

“You said you were afraid of me at first too, my Queen.”

“Yes, it’s true. Not that it was the same kind of fear, but maybe I have a type. Older, more powerful deities with imposing auras?” She smiled nervously.

“So you are growing to like the King, then?”

“Yes? I think so.”

“And you are worried?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Don’t worry on my regard, my Queen. I do not mind.”

“You don’t?” The Olympian looked a bit surprised by her lover’s admission.

“I never expected to receive as much affection from my Queen as I have already enjoyed, and immortals very seldom spend all their long lives with a single partner. I never thought I would want even one myself until I met you, my Queen.”

“Oh, Nyx!” Persephone hugged the chthonic goddess. “I love you. I really do.”

“I know, my Queen. And I love you and adore you, and I want you to be as happy as you can. If that includes your husband in any way, then I will do what I can to help.”

“Are you sure? I understand it can’t be easy.”

“Well, my Queen, I think you’d find that half of the work is already done?”

“What? I meant easy for you. What do you mean?”

“Don’t worry about me, my Queen. And what I meant,” started explaining Nyx, “is that Hades is already deeply infatuated with you.”

“What?”

“In fact, he already was even before his brother brought you here.”

“What?,” repeated Persephone.

“Probably that had something to do with your uncle’s decision, in fact.”

“What?,” insisted the Olympian, increasingly confused.

“While our King has no interest in the matters of the surface, he likes to keep abreast of everything important that happens. Demeter finding a human lover and you being born were no secrets, and Hades receives quite a lot of information from the shades of the recently deceased and the occasional Underworld visit from Hermes, who certainly is not the God of Keeping Secrets.”

“And?”

“Well, when tales of your grace and beauty started to fill the halls, the King took an interest in you specifically. I must confess, my Queen, that I didn't much care about your existence before you arrived here, however.”

“That’s alright, Nyx. Please, keep explaining.”

“As you wish. Hades commissioned dead artists to paint portraits or create figurines of you, poets to sing about you, writers to record stories about you. To be honest, I found the whole thing a little upsetting.”

“Understandable,” admitted Persephone, feeling a chill down her spine.

“Then, after many years, suddenly, Zeus appeared unannounced before the gates of the Underworld, carrying you as an offering of sorts for his estranged brother. Hades was very angry, but he didn’t want to rebuff her brother and worsen the already tense relationship with the Olympians. Nor, do I suspect, did he want to send you off. He threw into the Phlegethon all the memorabilia dedicated to you he had collected, prepared the marriage ceremony and made you our Queen.”

“But, then, why didn’t he do anything else? It’s not as if I could resist him if he tried, not really.”

“Well, my Queen, we both are glad he didn’t attempt anything, because I would have tried my best to stop him otherwise.” Some stars burned bright red in Nyx’s mane. “I think he must have understood that his prior fascination with you was not healthy and he tried to start anew.”

“He could have not married me, then.”

“Yes, but I think he cares too much about appearances, my Queen. He didn’t want you to become a prisoner or him to become a jailor.”

“So he became my husband instead and turned the House into my gilded cage.”

“Something like that, yes. But I cannot wholeheartedly hate him for that, my Queen, because it was that way that I had the opportunity to meet you.”

“Too sincere, Nyx. You are too sincere sometimes.”

“My apologies, my Queen.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not even mad at him anymore and I have no real reasons to be anything but grateful to you.” She kissed Nyx before sitting up and starting to pick up her clothes, that she had haphazardly thrown throughout the room during the initial stages of their encounter. “So, why do you think he is being more attentive now if he started so distant?”

“Well, my Queen, I might be wrong, but he could be feeling jealous of our relationship, even if he is only aware of the public part.” Nyx floated above the bed, summoned her clothes back and helped magically tidying up the room as she continued. “Our outings around your realm, our study lessons, the long lunches in the private VIP lounge. Even if he doesn’t suspect anything romantic between us, it’s obvious that you spend much more time with me than with him.”

“Yes, that’s true. But he was the one avoiding me at first,”

“Hades is honest about many things, but I don’t think he is very straightforward about his own feelings, my Queen.”

“Yes, I get that impression, too. Still, he is not that bad, isn’t he?”

“In my experience, he is as good as one can expect one of Olympian kin to be. Present company excluded, of course, my Queen.”

Persephone chuckled.

“Yes, I think you might be right. Then, you don’t mind if I spend more time with my husband?”

“No, I won’t. I suspect you have more love to give that I could ever take, my Queen, even if a part of me would like to try to keep it all for myself. But I would rather prefer if the beginning of your relationship with the King doesn’t become the end of ours.”

“I would never do that, Nyx. Nor would I let Hades do it to us.”

“I know, but I’m prone to worrying about the uncertain future,” Nyx explained, looking even more somber than usual for a moment, the light of the firmament on her hair dimming slightly. “My daughters don’t tell me everything, my Queen, and the Fates often weave cruel and painful stories, for mortals and immortals alike.”

The gloomy comment caused a brief but very heavy silence to linger in the air. Persephone looked at her lover, with a worried expression on her face, and clapped her hands as if she was trying to scare away the foreboding feeling floating in the chambers.

“Now, Nyx, talking about children, ehm… Since you have many, I suppose you have some experience with individuals of the male persuasion?”

“Experience in which sense, my Queen? I’ve brought up some sons, if that’s what you mean.”

“I was thinking more about the part of making them, you know… The-the copulation,” she explained, making slightly obscene gestures.”

“My children don’t have fathers, my Queen, they are just mine.”

“Uh-hu. Hm. Nyx, how?,” asked Persephone, visibly puzzled. “How did you make them without a father?”

“Well, I’m not really that sure, I just did. Sort of like my mother-father did with me, I suppose. I never gave it that much thought, my Queen.”

“So you never… You know… With a man?”

“I was being honest before when I told you that I had never developed any interest in having a partner before I met you, my Queen.”

“I know you wouldn’t lie to me, Nyx, I just assumed that if you had children… Now I feel silly. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise, my Queen. I do not discuss those matters unprompted and many shades believe that I was involved with Hades himself, at least before you came.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. I mean, if I’d been in Hades position I would at least have tried, Nyx. You are...” Persephone moved her arms in the general direction of her lover. “I mean, you are too much to handle.”

“I did receive an invitation of sorts from the King long ago, now that you mention it, my Queen. We still allowed nectar on the House then and Hades never had as much tolerance to the substance and one would assume. He was inebriated and proposed, in a very roundabout way, to share an intimate encounter with me. I rejected the offer as politely as I could, of course. Then, as soon as he recovered from the hangover, he forbade the presence of nectar in the House and in the Underworld at large, except for the inhabitants of Elysium.”

“Wow. You really don’t fool around, Nyx. Holy Styx. I don’t know if I would be able to say no.”

“Would you’d have preferred me to accept, my Queen?”

“No, no. But weren’t you at least a little bit curious?”

“Not particularly. You seem to be, however. Even if I don’t have direct experience, I might be of some help, my Queen.”

“Look, it’s not that I don’t know how it works.” Persephone repeated some of the explicit hand gestures and added a few more to the routine. “It’s just that it would, in fact, be my first time with a man. Mom didn’t let me get out much, you know?”

“Yes, my Queen. You have often told me about Demeter’s overprotectiveness.”

“And Hades is… He is...” Persephone pointed to the giant bed. “He’s huge, Nyx. And I wonder if we would even be physically compatible, if things ever go that far.”

“Oh yes, I see. Well, my Queen, having now shared many intimacies and extensively explored your body in various ways…”

“You can say that,” interrupted the Olympian, blushing after some particularly sultry memories popped up on her head.

“I think you will find the King’s features to be manageable,” continued Nyx, “as long as both parties exercise proper caution and don’t go too wild.”

Persephone blinked several times in rapid succession and sat down, still a bit hot under the collar due to the intense events she had just recalled.

“Nyx, wait. Have you seen the King’s… You know… His sceptre?”

“If you mean his penis, my Queen, I have not directly seen it, no.”

“Then?”

“It’s my job, or part of it, knowing what is going on around in the House. And, although he probably could spend more time taking care of his personal hygiene—aside from his moustache–, Hades sometimes goes around without any attire. And I, as part of my job, take notice of that.”

“Nyx?,” asked Persephone, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Nyx, do you watch me… Do you watch me use the lavatory?”

“Of course not, my Queen. But I’m aware of you using it and I know whether things are going well or if any assistance is needed.”

“Well, the thing she said about me needing to eat more fibre out of the blue now makes more sense,” thought the Olympian goddess, reasonably confused and annoyed about her lover’s newly revealed capability.

“I’m not spying on my Queen, and I’d rather have my eyes pulled out and thrown to the Styx to be eaten by scyllascions than make you uncomfortable. I just have my responsibilities to fulfill, my Queen.” The faintest shadow of the truest worry crossed the stoic face of Mother Night.

“I-I understand. It’s all right, Nyx. Please, keep your eyes. I love them.” Persephone sighed. “So you said he would be… How did you say... He would be manageable, then?”

Nyx nodded.

“This manageable?,” asked the Queen, putting her hands in front of her, separated by about half the length of her forearm.

Nyx floated in front of her beloved, carefully studied the measurement and, very gently, separated Persephone’s hands several inches more.

“Oh boy,” said the Olympian, looking anxiously at the empty space between her hands. “And around?”

“That would be close in girth to my wrist, my Queen,” answered Nyx after thinking about it for a few seconds. “Engorged, I mean, of course.”

“Well, that’s a relief, I suppose.” She laughed. “Engorged, of course,” she repeated, trying to mimic her lover’s voice, then laughed some more. “Oh, Nyx. Never change.”

“I don’t plan to, my Queen.”

“Great. Well, anyway, I think I will accept your help with all this, if you are still up to it.”

“To prepare you for him, my Queen? Well, I assumed he should take care of it himself, but of-.”

“No Nyx,” interrupted the Queen. “Seriously, leave that aside for now. I was talking about setting up dates with him and things of that sort. To know him better, to make up my mind about him, all that.”

“Oh, I understand now, my Queen. Please excuse my previous misconstructed impression.”

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, if there is really something to be had with my husband at some point, I might very well ask for your help before we finally have our very belated wedding night.”

“You will have my complete assistance, my Queen, for anything you need. But, just to avoid further confusion, with what you would need my help then?”

“Right now, just to know Hades better. Dating and such. After that, if we really click, for… To... Let’s call it management practice, Nyx.”

“Oh.” Some planetary orbits around specific stars on Nyx’s stellar mane accelerated temporarily. “I understand. By the way, the King is coming here as we speak. We were supposed to be here talking about redecorating this chamber. Any ideas?”

“Well, obviously-.”

The gigantic doors of the bedroom ominously creaked open before the colossal regent of the Underworld entered his room, looking suspiciously at the two female deities, who were apparently having a completely normal conversation.

“Some very soft pillows, with gold embroidery, would be nice to have,” continued Persephone without skipping a beat. “And you said something about mirrors, Nyx?”

“A big, full-body mirror enhances any bedroom, my Queen.”

“Oh, Hades, I almost didn’t feel you come in. Did you want anything?,” asked the Olympian to her husband.

The gigantic God cleared her throat and tried to look directly into his wife’s emerald eyes but soon recanted his gaze. He straightened his magnificent moustache and politely greeted the chthonic goddess with a nod before redirecting his attention to the Queen once more. 

“If you have already finished with this nonsense, I’m currently available to help you with the pomegranate recollection.” His deep voice boomed and echoed inside the bedchamber, but his body language seemed much less intimidating. Somewhat demure, in fact. “If you want me to, of course.”

“That would be nice, yes. Thank you. Nyx, do you want to join us?”

Hades’s eyes flashed with burning rage for a second, but Mother Night did not care about the implied threat. What she did care about was her beloved’s happiness.

“No, my Queen, I have other things to take care of. Maybe another time,” she answered. “Lord Hades,” she added, nodding at the King with her usual cold cordiality, “enjoy her fruits. They are delightful.”

“We’ll save some for you, Nyx,” promised Persephone, waving goodbye to her lover.

The Goddess of the Night left the room, the air around her a tad more cold and dark than usual. She wasn’t as good at telling the future as her daughters, but she had the foreboding feeling that there were hard times waiting for the rulers of the Underworld. The Olympian goddess, unaware of any gloomy premonition, gently placed one of her hands on the muscular forearm of her husband before they started walking towards her garden.


	4. Mirror, Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even after growing closer and more confident in her love for one another, Lord Hades still seems strangely reluctant to accept the Queen's advances, despite Persenphone's best attempts. Frustrated and out of ideas, she asks for Nyx's assistance during one of their dates in the Moaning Fields. Mother Night gladly grants it, including a trip to their old and mostly abandoned mansion in the depths of the Underworld. While the Queen finds the solution to her marital problems, the chthonian deity unveils the terrible prophecy that threatens to break her beloved's heart.

The continuously improving relationship of the regents of the Underworld soon became the preferred topic of conversation for many shades. While Hades’s usual grim disposition didn’t really change that much when he was away from his wife, he seemed to mellow noticeably as soon as the Queen joined him. As the amount of time they passed together increased, the feelings of Persephone for the grey-skinned titan-slayer grew stronger and became clearer. And, likewise, Hades demonstrated through gifts and slight changes in demeanor his affection for his Queen with increasing frequency and intensity. However, not everything was going as smoothly as the Olympian hoped.

“Nyx, what do you think?,” asked Persephone to her bestie, relaxing on the pool while some hand-shaped remnants massaged her feet. “He is being awfully nice as of late, especially when nobody’s looking, but if I so much as try to kiss his hand, he immediately finds an excuse to move away and dodge me as if I had venomous snakes on my head.”

“I’ve noticed his attempts at avoiding too much physical intimacy, my Queen. However, I thought you wanted to take your time,” answered the chthonic goddess, sitting on the pool next to her beloved, while an almost complete ghostly figure brushed her floating mane of starry dark hair.

“Well, yest, I wanted to take my time… Weeks ago. Or months. And it’s not because he doesn’t want me. Have you seen how he looks at me when he doesn’t think I notice?”

“Yes, my Queen. He is very obviously pining for you. As many do, deservedly so, myself included.”

“Pining? He is thirstier than the shades of Asphodel, he is. He will burn a hole in my dress if he continues looking at my ass that way.”

“My Queen has a very appealing posterior.”

Persephone smiled and playfully splashed some water towards her friend.

“Which happens to be still a bit sore, Nyx,” she complained, massaging one of her buttocks. “You have really taken a liking to spanking me, eh?”

“Only because my Queen finds it stimulating,” replied Mother Night without changing her ever-stern facial expression.

“Yeah, sure,” said the Olympian, splashing even more water towards her lover. “I hope that, if he ever grows some spine, Lord Hades doesn’t do it with as much enthusiasm and gusto as you, Nyx, or I won’t be able to sit for a century afterwards.”

“You say that, my Queen, but I’m not sure that you mean it.”

“Nyx! You-You cosmic wench!” Persephone, with feigned anger, dismissed the remnants tending her feet and jumped over the chthonic goddess like a kitten playing pretend hunt. “How dare you disrespect your Queen!” She kissed her lover and then bit her purple bottom lip. “You deserve harsh punishment for this crime!”

Nyx made her spectral hairdresser disappear, embraced her Queen and floated with her a few feet above the red waters of the pool. She kissed Persephone back, deeply. She reciprocated and they floated in place, hugging and etwinning her tongues until the Olympian felt the need to catch some air.

“More!,” she commanded before locking lips with her lover again.

While they kissed, the Goddess of Vegetables slid one of her hands among the chthonian deity’s pale shapely thighs, looking for, and soon finding, her other sets of lips and the bush of soft dark hair that protected them. She grabbed some of the pubes and pulled, causing Nyx to almost skip a breath—which was as close as she ever got to moaning. Then, she inserted the middle and ring fingers inside the already wet pussy of her lover and started stimulating her most sensitive spots, inside and outside, grinding, twisting, pushing and pinching, trying—as she enjoyed doing—to elicit the strongest reaction possible from the unbelievably stoic Mother Night.

Although Persephone’s techniques weren’t as precise as Nyx, they had shared enough intimacy together to develop a really good sense of what each other enjoyed. And, as little as the older goddess did show outwardly, she was really enjoying her partner’s attention. The Olympian increased the rhythm of her movements and the depth of her incursions into Nyx’s godly soggy grotto. Gradually, as the chthonian deity approached the zenith of her gratification, the couple descended into the waters, where Persephone’s efforts finally achieved their intended result and, with the loudest blissful whisper she had ever uttered, Nyx announced the conclusion of her climax. Climax that was much more noticeable from a purely physical standpoint, as her trembling legs and the tightening grip of her ladybits on her lover’s fingers clearly evidenced.

“I will make you scream, Nyx. Some day, I will make you scream” promised the Queen of the Underworld, kissing her lover in the mouth before helping her stand up.

“Please, my Queen, keep trying,” requested Nyx, as several shooting stars finished crossing the firmament of her hair. She recovered her usual dignified levitating stance and planted the softest possible kiss on her beloved’s forehead. “Try as many times as you want.”

The two goddesses barely contained her evident urges of initiating another round of hanky-panky, since they had already spent too much time enjoying the waters of their humid hideout and they had some responsibilities waiting for them in the House.

“Anyway, Nyx, what do you think I can do with Hades?,” asked Persephone while they were waiting for Charon, a few minutes later.

“Do with him in which sense, my Queen?”

“You know, to help him understand that I’m into him. He’s too thick or too proud to accept my advances and, at the same time, he avoids even holding my hand for more than a few seconds. I’m two frustrating dates away from calling the whole thing off.”

“Well, my Queen, you could always try giving him some nectar to make him drop his guard.”

“I’d rather don’t drug my husband to have him kiss me.”

“I understand. Hm, in a tangentially related topic, my Queen, you told the King about us? About our… Our special relationship?”

“Our love affair, you mean?,” said the Olympian, taking one of the chthonic goddess’s hands and kissing it. “You know I did, Nyx, don’t play coy. He wasn’t enthused with the idea but said that he was willing to let her wife have one privileged friend, as he put it, as long as she was trustworthy and discreet.”

“Fortunately I’m both those things, my Queen.”

“Yes, Nyx,” granted Persephone, chuckling. “You are, indeed.”

“Have you thought that, since he now knows the full nature of our relationship, he might very well think that you have no interest in those of the male persuasion? He also might be afraid of not performing at my level.”

“Wow, Nyx, you don’t mince words!” The Olympian looked at her lover, both admired and stunned by her boldness. “Not everything is about performance, Nyx. We humble regular gods cannot hope to compete with your ancient ways, but I really want Hades to at least try, you know?”

“Yes, I think I can understand that,” answered the nocturnal goddess after a brief pause. “If using nectar is out of the question, my Queen, I don’t know what could take for your husband to abandon his current reluctant behaviour towards you.”

Persephone sighed, visibly frustrated.

“Considering that he is evidently deeply infatuated with you, my Queen, I’m shocked-.”

“That’s it, Nyx! Shock!,” interrupted the Olympian, clapping her hands. “Shock therapy!”

“My Queen, what’s this shock therapy you talk about?”

“A thing my uncle Zeus invented,” she explained. “Nothing to do with thunder and lightning, don’t worry. It’s just making someone directly face something they fear or hate or otherwise don’t want to deal with, in the hope of getting a reaction.”

“If you don’t mind me saying so, my Queen, it seems a tad too brash and unsensitive.”

“Of course it is, I already told you it was uncle Zeus’s idea. But I’d rather take the risk.”

“Very well, my Queen. And how do you hope to deliver this shock to the King?”

“Hmm. Good question…”

Persephone tapped one of her fingers on her nose and started to nervously walk around the small dock of the Moaning Fields, lost in thought. She continued with this routine until Charon’s raft started approaching. When she lifted her head to look towards the ghoulish boatman, she saw her own reflection on the red waters of the Styx and something clicked on her head.

“ _ Eureka _ !,” she exclaimed, looking at her lover. “Nyx, how many mirrors do you have?”

“Many, my Queen. Do you want the exact number and characteristics?”

“Can you show me?,” Persephone asked, excitedly jumping onto the boat.

“Of course, my Queen. Charon, could you take us to our old dwelling?”

“Mrrrgl,” answered the boatman. “Graaahl…”

Some time later, the eerie ferryman dropped the couple on the pier of Nyx’s personal abode. It led to a dark stone palace, gloomily decorated with skull motifs and bright purple gems. There were no doors, no guards, nothing preventing anyone from getting inside, but no light passed through the threshold. It was completely and utterly enveloped in darkness.

“Forgive me for not bringing you here before, my Queen, but I don’t really spend much time here anymore myself. Please, hold my hand,” asked Mother Night to her beloved, landing next to her.

Persephone did as requested, and both entered the palace. Thanks to the power of the chthonian goddess, they could see the interior, although the Olympian felt as if she was looking through a smoked piece of glass.

“I’m truly sorry for the inconvenience, my Queen. I have some jars with stored light of Ixion that we could use to light up other rooms, but removing the primordial darkness from the entrance, even temporarily, would take considerable effort.”

Mother Night found the aforementioned bottled lights and, using them, took Persephone through a very brief tour of her now-abandoned home. There was a huge library filled with parchment scrolls, most of them old prophecies of the Fates. There were several rooms with empty shelves and stony beds, not very different from the one Hades had in the royal bedchamber, although considerably smaller.

“I really need to introduce the concept of the mattress to all of you,” commented the Olympian in passing.

Nyx’s private chambers were considerably bigger and had some additional pieces of furniture, like a dresser and two bedside tables. And mirrors, lots and lots of mirrors. Mirrors hanging on the walls, mirrors sitting on the tables, mirrors standing on the floor, mirrors embedded in the ceiling. Thousands of Persephones and Nyxes of different sizes were reflected all around the room.

“That’s really a lot of mirrors,” said Persephone.

“I originally used them to watch different areas of the Underworld, my Queen. As I refined my talents, they became unnecessary, but I saw no reason to dispose of them.”

“And this big one?,” asked the Olympian, pointing to a huge mirror that took up most of the surface of one of the walls of the room. “Why doesn’t it reflect anything?”

“That’s the Mirror of Night, my Queen. It’s almost as old as myself and only reflects those whose lineage is close to the Primordial Chaos. One who wields considerable control over Darkness can use it to alter their reflection and, likewise, alter their true self. It’s how I came to have this shape.”

“You chose your appearance?”

“Yes, my Queen. Long, long ago. Before being Nyx, the goddess, I was just Night. Chaos made me, but I wanted to be more, and used the Darkness to give myself this body.”

“I’m impressed, Nyx.”

“Without the power of the Mirror of Night, I couldn’t have done anything, my Queen.”

“No, I mean by your excellent taste. You chose all this,” Persephone gestured at her lover’s body, “in a single try. Wow. If I could change myself, I would probably make touches here and there every day.”

“I’m glad you can’t, my Queen. You are already perfect as you are.”

“Aaaaw, thanks. Well, about the therapy… Would you let me use your room, Nyx? I have the seed of an idea, but it’s about to sprout.”

“Anything for you, my Queen.”

“Grrrreeeat! Let’s get down to business, we don’t have all eternity.”

“Well, my Queen, technically we do… We could always do some... Some management practice before arranging things. Just in case.”

“Nyx, you minx,” said Persephone, jumping on the bed and smiling. “Come here.”

A few hours later, Nyx was back in the House, waiting for the King to grant her audience. The stars on her hair were slightly brighter than usual, a sign that only Persephone—or the Fates themselves—knew that it meant that she had recently enjoyed physical intimacy with her beloved Olympian mistress. There was a long line of shades waiting for judgement and relocation, and Hades had been sitting on his desk for several days trying to clear the queue, to no avail. Tired and frustrated, the King stood up from his throne and looked at the God of Sleep, who was taking a floating nap.

“Hypnos!,” shouted the Lord of the Underworld. “Wake up and do your work for once! Cerberus, if he as much as blinks again, bite one of his legs off! I’m taking a break.”

The King angrily walked towards Nyx, who was waiting for him in front of the entrance to the lounge.

“What do you want, Nyx?”

“Lord Hades, I came here because my Queen wants to see you.”

“And, where is she?”

“She is waiting for you in my palace. She wants your help choosing a mirror for your bedchambers.”

“What!? Why should I care about a mirror? She can pick anyone she likes!”

Nyx cleared her throat.

“She has insisted she needs your assistance, Lord Hades,” explained Mother Night in her polite monotone voice, carefully choosing her words. “She is eagerly awaiting your input.”

The King grumbled, closed his fists and intently looked at the chthonian deity.

“You already help her with many other things, don’t you, Nyx?,” growled Hades, his red eyes burning like fiery embers. “Why not with this?”

“I have already offered as much relief to my Queen as I could, lord Hades. Now she wants her husband.” Nyx’s golden irises reflected the King’s intense gaze.

“Alright, alright. I’ll go, take me there.”

Nyx touched Hades’s forearm and, in an instant, the two deities disappeared from the House and immediately reappeared in a hall inside the chthonian goddess’s palace, just in front of the doors of her bedchamber. The sudden relocation seemed to inconvenience even the gigantic God of the Dead.

“My Queen is waiting for you inside, Lord Hades. I’ll leave you alone,” she announced, half a second before vanishing into thin air again.

“If only,” mumbled Hades. He cleared his throat, recovered his composure and knocked on the door. “Persephone, I’m here.”

“Come on in, dear,” called his wife from the inside. “I have many things to show you.”

“Dear?,” whispered the god, both slightly confused and unexpectedly moved by the use of a term of endearment. “All right, show me then...”

Hades opened the door and entered the room, ready to protest for the disturbance all this mirror business had caused him. However, as soon as his sight adjusted to the comparatively bright light inside the bedchamber, his face froze in an expression of pure surprise. All around the room, different mirrors had been rearranged to show only one thing when one looked from the open door: the figure of his wife suggestively lying on the stony bed, completely nude except for a purple silk sheet strategically deployed to barely cover her most intimate areas. Her bronzed body gleamed under the light of Ixion that shone from several jars dispersed between the reflective surfaces around the bed. She looked positively radiant—in part due to the intense practice session she had completed with Nyx not so long ago.

“Well, dear, what do you think? Do you like what you see?,” teasingly asked Persephone, smiling and moving the sheet to show even more of her well-toned thighs.

“Ah-huh-hrm,” answered the god, unable to close his mouth or look away from the many reflections of her wife.

“Don’t just stand there, husband, come here,” ordered the Queen, patting the bed. ”Take care not to break any mirror and close the door.”

Hades obeyed without saying a word. 

After over thirty minutes of relative silence, broken only once by a mirror accidentally being shattered by an awkwardly huge god, Nyx, who had transported herself to her library started to hear echoes of the familiar cries of joy of her beloved—but not especially silent—Queen. Although her face didn’t change at all, Mother Night felt a new and slightly uncomfortable feeling on her chest. It was the first time she had heard those particular vocalizations without her being the one causing the pertinent pleasure. It felt bittersweet. She was happy for her Queen, who had finally broken through and reached her husband. She felt sad because, as she had already suspected before, one of the Fates’ omens threatened to fill her beloved’s heart, and probably the Underworld at large, with loss, grief and sorrow.

“The King of the Underworld will never have a successor,” she read aloud from the scroll she had picked up. “His seed will never bear true life, no matter how many times he tries, how long he lives or how much he loves his Queen.”

While the somber shadow of concern dimmed the light from the stars of Nyx’s mane, the goddess returned to the shelf the piece of parchment containing the odious prophecy.


	5. The Rule of Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the belated consummation of the wedding of Persephone and Hades, the Queen of the Underworld finally accepted her royal role in the House. Despite being busier than ever, the Olympian continued enjoying private encounters with both her chthonian friend and her fiery husband. Everything seemed to be going well for the three rulers of the Underworld. However, things change and the Fates are never wrong.

Since she knew the King was busy finally fulfilling his marital duties, Nyx decided to leave the library, full of other ominous predictions, and transported herself to the House. She wasn’t exactly hierarchically positioned to take up the King’s many administrative tasks, but she could at least make sure of things being as orderly as possible for when the Lord of the Underworld resumed his unending toil. She brought Hypnos back from one of his oneiric excursions, intimidated the newly arrived shades into forming something resembling a proper queue and tended to other matters to fill up the time, all the time trying her best to keep her nigh-omniscient awareness away from her bedchambers back in the dark palace. 

A few hours later, after doing as much work as she could, Nyx decided to wait for her beloved in the garden, floating under the same pomegranate tree where she had originally confessed her feelings to the Olympian goddess. To keep herself busy, Mother Night opened up a ripe pomegranate and very leisurely started to eat the seeds one by one. She was about to finish the fruit when Persephone entered the garden from the other side. She was walking arm in arm with the Lord of the Underworld, almost hanging from one of her husband’s huge forearms, while he was effortlessly carrying one of Nyx’s biggest full body mirrors over his other shoulder. The usually perfectly groomed facial hair of the King had been visibly disheveled. The hair of the Olympian goddess was also somewhat messier than usual, but the most evident change is that she was wearing her crown of fiery laurels, something she had refused to do since she took it off after her marriage and crowning ceremony. She looked extremely happy and content, glowing and grinning from ear to ear. The chthonian deity thought that her beloved had never looked more elated, or more beautiful.

“Nyx!,” shouted the Goddess of Vegetables, waving enthusiastically to her friend. “Dear, go ahead, I need to speak with Nyx.”

“But…” The King tried to protest, but Persephone quickly shut him down by giving him a kiss. A kiss as soft as the flapping of a butterfly’s wing, but strategically placed on the tip of one of Hades’s fingers. The regent’s grey skin turned slightly purplish around his cheeks. “I-I’ll go ahead and leave the mirror in the chambers.”

“Thanks, see you later, my King,” promised the Olympian, placing special emphasis on the last two words.

A dorkish smile briefly formed under the Lord of the Underworld’s moustache, who immediately continued walking towards the inside of the House. Persephone walked towards her other lover, on relatively wobbly legs, and sat on the ground next to Nyx.

“Well,” she said, taking one of Mother Night’s hands and beckoning her to sit down, “the shock therapy worked wonders, Nyx.”

“I’m really glad, My Queen,” answered the nocturnal goddess, elegantly crossing her legs and gently descending until she was floating next to her beloved, a finger away from the ground. “I trust my calculations and preparations towards the successful management of the King’s attributes proved correct.”

“Oh, yes,” confirmed the Olympian, smiling. “I managed him pretty well, believe me,” she explained in a sing-songy voice. “Prrrrreeeeeeeeetty well,” she repeated. “Although maybe one time too many,” she added, readjusting her sitting position and chuckling.

Nyx looked intently at her beloved, experiencing again the conflicting clash of emotions of feeling truly happy for her while also somewhat disappointed for not being her the direct cause of that happiness. She didn’t show it externally, of course, but somehow the Olympian noticed something was off.

“It was all thanks to you, Nyx,” Persephone said, tenderly kissing Mother Night’s hand. “It was wonderful, maybe not exactly romantic, but very emotional. And very intense.” She fanned herself, recalling some choice moments. “But it was all thanks to you. I could never repay you for this, Nyx.”

“There is no need, my Queen. Seeing you this happy is more than payment enough.”

“Oh, Nyx!” The Olympian kissed her lover on the lips. “You do know that I still love you, do you?”

Nyx nodded and kissed her beloved back.

“Don’t forget that. Never forget that. I’m glad to have been married to a good man all this time… Well a good god. A decent god at least. You know what I mean. But I will always love you too, Nyx.”

The twinkling of the stars on Nyx’s floating mane became brighter and accelerated.

“Of course I won’t forget, my Queen,” she replied. “And I will also keep loving you for all eternity.”

“Great, because as soon as I recover from my late wedding night… Or wedding day, or whatever time it was… I plan to very enthusiastically show you my love and gratitude.” She readjusted her position again, wincing from the effort. “It might take me some time, though. Can I have some of that pom?”

“Of course, my Queen,” Nyx said, handing the remains of the fruit to her beloved.

“I’m starving.” Persephone started eagerly eating the remaining flesh-covered seeds of the pomegranate when she suddenly seemed to remember something. “Ah! I forgot two things!”

“Nothing important, I hope,” commented Nyx, who had been silently enjoying watching the Queen eat. She always felt it oddly satisfying.

“Well, I forgot to thank you for sending Charon to pick us up with the big boat.”

“Seemed the logical thing to do, my Queen. It wouldn’t do any good to the Underworld leaving their regents stranded in a forgotten palace.”

“Thanks anyway. About the other thing… We broke one of your mirrors, Nyx. I am truly sorry and Hades said he will pay you handsomely for the broken one and the one we took.”

“There is no need. Count them both as my wedding gifts, my Queen.”

“Nyx, stop being so damn perfect and proper and adorable, or I will eat you as soon as I finish this pom,” threatened the Olympian, smiling.

“If that’s what my Queen wants, I’d gladly offer myself to appease her appetite.”

Persephone bursted laughing, spitting some of the half-chewed seeds of the pomegranate at an impressive distance. She kept laughing until her belly hurt. Nyx kept looking at her, enthralled by her beloved’s mirth and  _ joie de vivre _ , something so alien to herself and yet so incredibly attractive. It was almost contagious. For the briefest moment, an involuntary impulse made the corners of Mother Night’s mouth slightly pull outwards and upwards. Persephone somehow noticed and immediately stopped laughing.

“No way!,” she shouted, dropping what little was left of the fruit and holding Nyx’s head between her hands. “Did you smile just now?”

“I’m not really sure, my Queen,” confessed the chthonian goddess. “I felt a momentary surge of glee and I think my face did something in response.”

“Oh! Oh! Oh my godliness!” Persephone passionately kissed her beloved, stood up, almost jumping of pure joy, and started dancing. “I ma-de Nyx smi-ile! Oh-ho-ho-ho! I ma-de Nyx smi-ile!,” she sang, prancing around her lover. “I think that makes me the most powerful deity ever.”

“Well, my Queen, you surely are the most wonderful already,” said Mother Night, never missing an opportunity to lavish her Queen with praise, “although I’m not so sure about whether or not this odd involuntary reaction deserves so much celebration.”

Regardless of the ephemeral facial phenomena being reason enough or not, Persephone’s generally positive outlook became even more cheerful since that day. The Queen took a much more active role in the House’s many activities and her bright disposition soon turned her into a beacon of light in the otherwise gloomy Underworld. She still found ways to spend quality time with her two lovers. Always separately, although not for lack of curiosity about what it would mean to enjoy their company together for once. However, despite their mutual respect and acknowledgement of each other’s place in both the House and in the Queen’s heart, Nyx and Hades did not mix well at all. 

Seasons passed without any worrying news, and even the usually fatalistic Goddess of Night had begun to forget about the miserable omens of her daughters. Even the King had mellowed enough to let the two goddesses share more of their encounters in the royal chambers, even if he mostly did it because it also shortened the time his wife had to spend away from the House.

“My Queen,” said Nyx, whose floating hair was undulating in the air and its stars shining with unusually bright light, “I’m really enjoying this.” She paused, a star exploded somewhere in the firmament of her mane. “But if you continue,” she added, taking a deep breath, “I might lose control of my…” She licked her lips and exhaled some air. “My levitation, and I don’t want…” Another deep breath. “I don’t want to suffocate my Queen.”

“Just trust me and sit on my face like a normal goddess next time!,” thought Persephone, unable to talk due to having her head buried under Nyx’s generous pale thighs and buttocks, as well as her lips and tongue being otherwise occupied. “Mrurrphlhrrrgrmmmpl,” was the closest thing she managed to actually vocalise.

As Mother Night had warned, as her lover’s oral attention pushed her closer and closer towards a climax, her control over her gravity-defying powers diminished and soon she was resting her full weight on her Queen’s face. Although it certainly did make breathing properly much more of a challenge, Persephone in fact welcomed the change. On one hand, she no longer had to push her face upwards to better reach her lover’s pretty purple pussy, on the other hand, she hoped this will help assuage Nyx’s stupid concerns she sometimes showed about she weighting too much. While it was true that the chthonian goddess was noticeably taller and more voluptuous than the Olympian, not only did Persephone not care or worry about that, but she also had become quite accustomed to fornicating with two bigger bodied deities and she in fact loved it. There was something magical about making immortal, powerful gods beg for more.

“Mrgle,” said the Olympian, feeling her lover was about to orgasm. “Mrgle, m-mllgggrrr.”

“I,” answered Nyx, her whole body trembling with excitement, about to reach the peak of glory mountain. “I,” she repeated. “I,” she insisted.

Persephone hugged her partner’s legs, took as deep as breath as the situation allowed and increased the intensity of her cuninlingual assault in voluntary apnea.

“I-I,” reiterated Mother Night.

The Olympian slurped and licked every drop of the chthonian goddess’s nectar, pushing her tongue as deep as she could inside her treasure cove before redoubling her efforts.

“I-I,” echoed Nyx. “Me, my,” she reworded, biting her lips. “I-I-I,” she restated, back to her previous pronoun of choice.

About to run out of air, Persephone freed one of her hands and, using it to help, turned her full attention towards her lover’s plum-coloured pearl of pleasure.

“I-I-I-I,” chanted Nyx, adding another letter to the chorus. “I-I-I-I-I.” She added another one, and increased the volume. “I-I-I-I-I!” And another, now singing even louder.

“Mrgllll glrrrm gl!,” protested the breathless Olympian.

The incoming wave of bliss finally reached the shore, sending a quake-like tremor through Nyx’s whole body. Persephone felt the last remnants of air abandon her lungs and, despite having her eyes closed and her face completely buried under her lover’s generous posterior, she could swear she was seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. Then, overcome with extreme pleasure and momentary exhaustion, the chthonian deity let her body fall forward and rolled on the stony bed next to her nearly-drowned lover.

“Ah-hn,” whispered the supremely satisfied Mother Night.

Persephone took several deep breaths and, as soon as she recovered from the effort, repositioned herself to properly embrace her lover from behind.

“That good, eh?,” said the Olympian, still a little pale but grinning smugly.

“Yes, my Queen,” answered Nyx, gladly accepting her role as the small, albeit physically bigger, spoon. “I was trying to warn you about the closeness and intensity of the orgasm, but I kept losing words.”

“I noticed,” declared Persephone, kissing Nyx on the shoulder and sniffing her hair. The chthonic goddess had the same very characteristic but faint ozonic smell, like the air just before and after lightning hit. At first she thought it was weird, now the Olympian loved it. “I will count that as finally making you scream, if you don’t mind.”

“Hm,” answered Nyx, turning around and kissing her partner. “I don’t know, my Queen. I think you should keep trying.”

“You!” Persephone pinched one of her lover’s nipples, but Mother Night barely reacted. “You are getting too savvy for your own good, you know?”

“I thought my Queen enjoyed the teasing, but I can stop-.”

The Olympian interrupted her pouncing on the goddess to deliver a deep long wet ferocious kiss, making Nyx roll on the bed and mounting her.

“Don’t you dare,” she ordered the chthonian deity, grabbing Nyx’s bountiful breasts and massaging them. “Just suffer the consequences.”

After playing with her lover’s ample pectoral assets for a few minutes, the Goddess of Vegetables gradually climbed her way up Nyx’s body until she had her partner’s head surrounded with her well-toned bronze legs.

“Mother Night, all-knowing keeper of secrets,” she said, slowly pushing her almost-gushing privates down on Nyx’s mouth, “show me how to make a goddess scream.”

And, as her Queen ordered, she did.

After two more rounds of extremely instructive demonstrations and some comforting cuddling, the pair of considerably tired goddesses decided it was time to stop. They dressed up and sat down to share a herbal tea before returning to their respective duties. Nyx noticed that the Queen had spent an unusually long amount of time inspecting her figure in the mirror that now stood in the bedchamber before donning her royal attire, and inquired thusly:

“Is my Queen worried about something health-wise?”

“Oh, well, not worried exactly,” answered the Olympian. “I’m just waiting to confirm something.”

A cloud of suspicion passed through Nyx’s mind, dimming the light of some of her stars.

“Can I assist you in any way, my Queen?”

“Well, maybe. I didn’t want to ask because you already told me before that some things worked differently for you, so…”

“What things, my Queen?”

“Motherly things, Nyx.”

“Motherly things, my Queen?”

“I think I’m expecting Hades’s child,” Persephone confessed, smiling demurely.


	6. The Queen's Challenges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even after sharing some Underworld-shattering news with Nyx, Persephone's optimism and playful lust for life doesn't seem to diminish, although the chthonic deity keeps being wary of the dark future predicted by their daughters. As things develop, with no apparent sign of catastrophe on the horizon, the two goddesses share an intense encounter during a shopping trip to Elysium.

A lesser deity, or at least one with more explosive emotional responses, would probably have turned the scene into a comedy routine by suddenly expelling a mouthful of drink and spraying everything and everyone in range. Nyx, however, calmly put down her cup, thought for a few seconds and plainly stated:

“It’s true that you seem to have missed your periods of the two last menstrual cycles, my Queen.”

“I know you know these things, Nyx, but sometimes I’d like to pretend you don’t.”

“Forgive me, my Queen.”

“Don’t worry. Yes, at first I thought I just had lost the sense of time, again. I’m still not completely used to the lack of a proper day-night cycle. But now I’m pretty sure.”

“Maybe I can check, my Queen.”

“I don’t know how you intend to do that, Nyx, but I’d rather wait and see.”

“All right, my Queen.” The chthonian goddess paused for a few minutes, during which the only things breaking the awkward silence were Persephone’s sips from her cup of tea. “Has Lord Hades told you anything about one particularly relevant prophecy the Fates shared with him, long ago, my Queen?”

“You mean the one about him never having a successor? Yes, he told me.” The Olympian goddess finished her cup but kept looking at the leaves left at the bottom. “At first I was a little shocked, but since I didn’t have any plans of having children, I didn’t mind. Besides, I was never taught how to avoid pregnancies, so I just tried to see the bright side and… You know…”

“Blithely bone your husband, my Queen?”

“I would probably use other words, but you are correct, yes.”

“My Queen,” said Nyx, taking the cup from her lover, putting it on the table and holding her hands, “I’m sorry to say that my daughters’ predictions are never wrong. Sooner or later, they become true.”

“Yes, I’ve been told.”

“Does Lord Hades know, my Queen?”

“I’d like to be sure before telling him.”

“That’s your prerogative, my Queen. However, there are other options…”

“I know what you mean, Nyx, and I know you have good intentions, but if by some miracle this is what I think it is, I’d like to have his child.”

“I will do everything in my power to assist you, my Queen,” Nyx said, squeezing her beloved’s hands.

“You know? You might think this is silly of me, but if I can have this child, I’d like you to help us bring them up,” Persephone confessed, kissing Nyx’s hands. “You have more experience with these things and…”

“My Queen, I’d do anything for you, even challenging my daughters, but until you are sure…”

“Yes, let’s wait. And let’s leave, we have things to do.”

After the abrupt ending to their conversation, the goddesses abstained from bringing up the topic for a few weeks, until the first obvious signs of pregnancy started to show. Although Nyx was still wary and refused to surrender to hope, she took care of keeping her apprehensions from Hades and Persephone, who were evidently enjoying their apparent reprieve from the Fates’ cruel predictions. The Olympian was also enjoying at least another aspect of her changing physique.

“Look, Nyx! I have cleavage!,” boasted Persephone, pushing her breasts together after pulling down the front of her tunic.

“My Queen’s bosom is truly magnificent, always was.”

“Yes, Nyx, thanks, but now it’s also bigger,” she insisted, getting even closer to her partner. “And they are really soft,” she added. “Come on, give them a squeeze, I know you want to.”

The goddesses were visiting Elysium, specifically the workshop of the famous shade of an artist that had taken tailoring as a hobby. The dead artisan had been working on several tunics for Persephone to wear during the different stages of her pregnancy. After a brief introduction, the two deities had been left alone in an elegant changing room filled with different dresses for the Queen to try.

“Come oooon,” repeated the Olympian, playfully accosting her uncharacteristically restrained lover.

Nyx had, obviously, already noticed the change in her beloved’s chest volume and was very much interested in manually exploring the recent alterations in her anatomy. However, her usual zealous physical devotion for her Queen had lately been somewhat dampened by her many concerns about the future.

“You want me to beg, hmm?,” asked Persephone, starting to get out of her tunic. “You are lucky, then, because I’m in the mood to beg,” she continued as she finished disrobing.

“My Queen, you don’t-.”

“Nyx,” interrupted the Olympian, taking one of her lover’s hands and pushing it against one of her breasts ”please touch me.”

“My Queen…”

“Yes, I’m your Queen. Then, fondle your Queen,” she continued, increasing the pressure and letting out a moan, “grope your Queen, lick your Queen,” she added, sliding a finger of her free hand between Nyx’s lips, “bite your Queen, f-u-c-k your Queen.”

Mother Night was not particularly known for being prone to submitting to the will of others or to irrational impulses. However, she had two weaknesses that Persephone had learned to exploit with exceptional precision and to great effect: Persephone herself, in general, and Persephone correctly spelling dirty words, specifically. Gods are weird. Without saying a single word, the chthonian goddess made her full attire vanish and started very enthusiastically licking her partner’s finger and massaging the Olympian’s bigger but still defiantly perky tits. Persephone didn’t lose any time either and used her mouth to enjoy her partner’s ample pectoral assets whenever the opportunity arose between bouts of screaming, moaning and laughing due to the zealous carnal attention provided by the chthonian goddess.

Her cup size had not been the only thing that Persephone’s pregnancy had increased, as lately the Olympian was feeling both hornier and more physically sensitive than usual. Since there were not many things as god-like as hedonism and she felt that her situation was worthy of celebration anyway, Persephone saw no reason to hold back her overcharged libido. And neither her loving husband nor her devoted mistress seemed particularly willing to deny her requests for venereal diversions, although there were some recent caveats that had not been yet divulged to the chthonian deity.

Nyx was evidently doing her best to sate her partner’s considerable thirst for sex, maybe to overcompensate for her initial demureness, maybe as a way to temporarily forget her own misgivings about her beloved’s circumstances. It worked in both regards, notwithstanding the actual intent. Mother Night had fully immersed herself in her role as a lover and, although she didn’t outwardly show it any more than the stoic goddess usually did —that it’s to say: barely if at all—, she was happier for it.

Persephone was ecstatic, playfully entangling her legs with Nyx’s and grinding her nethers against any available patch of her pale lover’s skin. Noticing her beloved’s eagerness for a specific kind of stimulation, the ever-aware chthonian goddess located the most appropriate piece of furniture to perform it and floated towards it, grabbing Persephone by her solid buttocks for security and knocking down a couple of mannequins on her way. When they reached the chaise lounge, Nyx gently put her lover down and kissed her deeply until the Olympian felt the need to breathe for air.

“Comfy,” she said, belatedly appreciating the cushioned divan Nyx had chosen for their incoming intercourse. “Should ask H-bear for one of these.”

Nyx heard the new term of endearment Persephone had coined for her husband, filed it in the folder for things she didn’t expect to hear in her eternal life, blinked once and continued with the lovemaking. The duo of deities were so in tune that neither of them needed to speak to know what to do. Persephone lied sideways on the divan and lifted one of her legs with considerable ease and evident eagerness. Her lover knelt in front of her, with her plump thighs tightly trapping the leg the Olympian had extended on the seat and pushing her black bush against the fair headed goddess’s golden grass.

“Yes! Ride your Queen!,” ordered Persephone, spreading her legs even more and slapping one of her buttocks. “Ride me like a golden chariot!”

Nyx obliged, grabbing hold of her partner’s elevated leg and promptly grinding her nether regions against Persephone’s. Usually the two lovers reserved this specific practice for later in their sexual encounters, but Nyx felt that the Olympian was evidently keen on starting strong and, as she almost immediately verified, much more readily lubricated than she would have otherwise expected so soon in the session. Persephone not only was evidently hot to trot, her privates were already swamped and primed before the couple had even started.

Mother Night, while completely focused on the extremely pleasurable task at hand, thanked her past self for reflexively casting obfuscating spells on any space the two deities shared for more than a few minutes. While Persephone was already prone to effusive vocalization during her sexual escapades, during her current fucking frenzy she turned positively scandalous. However, thanks to Nyx’s foresight, they were free to enjoy each other’s company —and considerable amounts of frantic friction.

If the godly tribbing going on had something in common with riding, it was less of an elegant dressage exhibition and more like a wild rodeo. The pale raven haired amazon was trying to tame a brash bronze bronco, and it was challenging enough remaining on top despite the former’s size advantage. Nyx had never seen Persephone so excited and anxious, and the Olympian had occasionally displayed the bursts of turbulent emotions that most of her divine lineage shared. Not that the excessive enthusiasm exercised by the Goddess of Vegetables made the intercourse any less enjoyable for both parties involved. In fact, after a short but exhausting first round, both goddesses achieved a satisfactory ending of the orgasmic variety, not at the same time, but close enough.

Persephone, despite enjoying a brief moment of apparent clarity and calm after the climax, soon decided that their initial encounter had ended with a tie and a second bout was needed to find a victor —not that Nyx had been informed of her apparent participation in any sort of competitive carnal concourse challenge. The Olympian changed her position in the divan, kneeling on all fours and presenting her backside to her lover. 

Mother Night was looking uncharacteristically disheveled after the wild ride, relatively speaking. Her pearly skin glistened with sweat and her floating mane was looking more dispersed and upraised than usual, although her stars and golden irises were shining with fiery intensity. The chthonian deity gladly accepted her beloved’s invitation, lying down on the chaise lounge, sliding a leg between Persephone’s knees and placing her still tender privates immediately under her lover’s.

If their first round had been a riding competition, the second one looked more like a sexy sumo match, with the two goddesses enthusiastically smashing and pressing their lower bodies against each other, looking as if trying to push each other out of the ring that was her shared seat. However, even if there was more than one loss of balance and leg slip involved in the struggle, it was quite clear that the two lovers cared as much, or more, for the other’s gratification as they did for their own. And they, despite some increasingly obvious signs of irritation in their nether regions, were evidently pillaging plenty of pleasure in their waist-down wrestling war.

After an epic struggle, the two intertwined divine lovers reached a peaceful and pleasant end to their conflict. Once more, close enough in time to maintain the stalemate in Persephone’s unannounced competition. Well, unannounced until that very moment:

“Best of three,” said the Olympian, after spending some time just gasping for air.

Persephone turned around and sat astride in front of her lover, admiring the chthonian deity’s perennially stern but supremely beautiful countenance. Nyx was looking only slightly less dignified than usual —though no less gorgeous—, with a couple of rebel strands of obsidian hair falling before her face. Without exchanging any more words, the two goddesses embraced and kissed passionately. It was an unusually slow, sloppy and slurpy exchange of saliva, and it worked very well as a way to recover their strengths and rekindle the flames of their desire, ever so slightly dimmed by exhaustion.

The entwined their legs once more, but this time their fornication was much less physically fatiguing, although not exactly less intense. During a far too brief eternity for their liking, they were the only two beings in their private universe. They kissed again and again, with their upper and lower sets of lips. They bit and brushed, caressed and cuddled, embraced and ensnared, fondled and fingered, grinded and groped, licked and laughed, moaned and massaged, squeezed and screamed. Well, Persephone screamed and laughed, but Nyx got very, very close too, according to the Olympian. And they, again, finished at almost the same time. Leaving or taking several minutes of very intense stimulation.

“Whew,” managed to vocalize Persephone after a long period of repose, feeling quite sore all around her body. 

She had fallen backwards and was lying on the chaise longue, looking like an incredibly radiant rag doll. She rolled around and looked at the floor, first at one side of the sofa, then at the other, until she finally found what she was looking for. She picked up her crown from the floor, sat up and kissed her lover, who had been sitting upright and looking enthralled at the bronze-skinned Olympian during their refractory period.

“I declare you the winner of this competition,” said Persephone, putting the crown on Nyx’s head. It was a bit too small to fit. The Olympian chuckled. “A perfect fit, my Queen!,” she lied, mimicking her friend.

“I abdicate,” said Nyx, sternly taking the crown and putting it back were it belonged, after combing with her hands her beloved’s rebellious mane of spiky golden hair. “I’d rather serve my Queen than become one.”

“I feel served all right. Whoo-hoo!,” the Olympian hollered, smacking one of her thighs and wincing. “Also, I might need some help walking.” She looked worryingly at the chaise lounge, which was looking significatively messier than when the deities arrived. “Can we do something about this, Nyx?”

“Well, once you can stand up again, my Queen, I can transport it to my palace and then pay its cost to the owner,” explained the chthonian goddess, who had resumed her levitating stance and resummoned her entire attire, although her mane was still slightly less harmoniously organised than usual.

“No, I’ll pay. I also think I’ll get all the clothes.”

“But you barely had any opportunity to try them on, my Queen.”

“Yeah, I know. But it seems easier than explaining to the tailor why I only put on one tunic for like, five minutes, after being in this room for more than an hour.”

“That’s true, my Queen,” Nyx granted. “You were positively agog today, it’s due to…?,” she asked, looking at Persephone’s barely protruding belly.

“Oh. Yes, I suppose I’ve felt a tad more needy lately, and more sensitive, and…”

“Is there something else worrying you, my Queen?”

The Olympian shook her head, then nodded, then buried her face in her hands.

“I’ve been a bit anxious about this prophecy business, you know? And… I’ve been avoiding…”

“Avoiding what, my Queen?”

Persephone sighed.

“I’ve been avoiding putting anything in, you know, in the oven,” she explained, touching her belly. “And Hades understood.”

“As do I, now that you have shared your worries, my Queen. No insertions, then.”

“But, as much as he tries,” continued the Olympian, “Hady-poo is not very good with things involving… F… Fi... What’s the word?”

“Fine motor skills, my Queen?,” volunteered Mother Night, trying to ignore the King’s new moniker.

“That’s not even a single word, Nyx.”

“Finesse?”

“Yes, that.”

“And I suppose that meant that, as of late, he hasn’t been able to properly satisfy some of your urges?”

“That’s an awful way of putting it, Nyx.”

“I’m sorry, my Queen,” apologised her lover.

“But you are not entirely wrong,” admitted the regent. “It’s funny how you have no facial hair at all and yet you give considerably better moustache rides than my husband, eh?,” Persephone said, standing up and winking to her partner.

“Yes, my Queen’s choice of euphemism is very humorously paradoxical, indeed,” answered Mother Night, evidencing no trace of mirth.

“I would say you are no fun, Nyx, but considering why it’s that I can barely feel my legs, it would seem hypocritical. Can you teach me how to levitate?”

“I could try, my Queen,” answered the chthonian deity, magically removing the dirty divan from the room with an effortless gesture. “But Primordial magic is not easy to master for surface gods.”

“You know, Nyx? I would hate how perfect you are if not for the fact that I love that about you.”

“Thank you, my Queen. I love you too.” The two goddesses shared a tender kiss. “Can I help you put some clothes on?”

“Please.”

Their divine shopping spree of sorts finished soon thereafter, leaving behind a considerably richer shade —who was not completely sure about what to do with the generous payment received or what had happened to their chaise lounge. Lord Hades, who chose not to ask the reason for his wife’s temporary wobbliness, was waiting for them back at the House. He had acquired, probably through unofficial channels, a plush doll that looked like a small Cerberus for their future child and wanted to show it to Persephone, who was very moved by the unexpectedly sentimental gesture. When Nyx saw it, she immediately developed an interest in the toy and made a mental note to look up parchments on sewing and other crafts as soon as she had an opportunity to visit her library.

During the following months, as Persephone’s pregnancy advanced without apparent problems, the regents started to talk about preparing a room for the child. A parchment storeroom near the main hall was emptied and the expecting parents started to order and buy the necessary furniture. Nyx was still worried about how the prophecy would undoubtedly prevent the successor from being born but, since everything seemed to be going better than expected, she decided to keep her worries sealed and support the parents, especially the Queen, as much as she could.


End file.
